This group of students belongs to an evangelical Christian fellowship called InterVarsity. It is only one of the many Christian organizations which are rapidly growing on college campuses throughout the country and the world. These fellowships do not just have weekly meetings. They seek to promote faith, hope and love on the college campus and in their community by providing the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of others.

One of 700 across the country, the Trenton State chapter has grown in attendance this past year. According to Tony Yuhas, campus staff minister for InterVarsity and chairman of the Council of Campus Ministries for the college, the fellowship now averages an attendance of 50 to 70 students weekly, with approximately 70 to 100 members.

InterVarsity began as a campus movement at the University of Cambridge, England in 1877. In 1928, a Canadian InterVarsity was formed, and by the late 1930s student groups appeared in the United States. In 1941, InterVarsity-USA officially began, which includes the British and Canadian movements as well as other student groups in more than 100 countries. This larger association is called the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

These students share a common faith and vision. They are committed, not only to reaching their campus but also the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Campus ministries such as concerts, speakers, community services and a Jesus Awareness week are only a few of the strategies used to engage the campus in their vision. The New Student Outreach at Trenton State includes a follow-up ministry in which InterVarsity members keep in contact with students who expressed an interest in the group. Part of the vision is to develop disciples who embody biblical values.

Wendy Off and Stephanie Buttafuocco are students who attend InterVarsity at Trenton State College. InterVarsity plays an important role in their lives, particularly as a source of friendships and support.

"There's a bond between us (InterVarsity members) ... there's something special about being with them based on that we have a common bond in Jesus Christ," Off said. "It's really hard to be a Christian, especially on a secular campus, and especially if you don't have a group of people who know where you're coming from and have a lot of similar experiences, similar struggles. It's good to have them around." Off is the ministry team coordinator for the group.

Buttafuocco said she attends InterVarsity for the Christian fellowship, which she doesn't get otherwise throughout the week. "It's a time to stop thinking about classes and to focus on God," she said.

Like Off, the organization has been a source of encouragement to her. "I think it's important to have a network or a support that Christians can go to or even non-Christians," she said.

Buttafuocco was outreach coordinator for the Trenton State chapter and a small group leader in the past. "It's (InterVarsity) played a large role in my college life. It's given me something where I can take an active

"There's a bond between us (InterVarsity members) ... there's something special about being with them based on that we have a common bond in Jesus Christ. It's really hard to be a Christian, especially on a secular campus, and especially if you don't have a group of people who know where you're coming from and have a lot of similar experiences, similar struggles. It's good to have them around." — Wendy Off

role," she said. "I organized events and planned events ... like Jesus Awareness Week."

The Campus Crusade for Christ group in Mankato State University of Mankato, Minnesota is making its voice heard by inviting a Christian debater to the campus. He will be speaking with students before formally debating one of the college's own philosophy professors. The topic discussed will be "Does God Exist?"

According to Yuhas, Intervarsity members also have small group Bible studies in which five to ten students meet weekly to practice spiritual disciplines among themselves. These studies, which usually last for approximately an hour and a half, are student-led. There are also prayer meetings at various times and places around the campus when students meet together and pray for personal needs as well as for the campus and the world.

Several colleges across the country will be taking advantage of spring break as an opportunity to share their faith. The Campus Crusade for Christ fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is taking a trip to Daytona Beach, Florida for "The Big Break," a conference and "outreach opportunity." Members of the same fellowship at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York are heading to New York City to share their faith with New York students. They will also be offering their services as volunteers within the community.

Texas A&M University of College Station, Texas is also active with inner- city projects. This summer, students will be traveling to Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Louisville, Minneapolis and New York City. There, they will work with inner-city ministries and churches to meet physical as well as spiritual needs in the community.

Chi Alpha, a campus ministry whose roots originate in the Pentecostal Church, states its mission is "Reconciling Students to Christ; Transforming the University, the Marketplace, and the World."

Rev. Peter Hartwig, who is presently the campus pastor for the Trenton State chapter of Chi Alpha and who also pastors a church in downtown Princeton, New Jersey, has estimated that there are about 450 chapters throughout the country, about 75 of which are led by students. The chapter at Trenton State does inner-city work in Trenton and Newark, New Jersey. It is also involved in foreign missions and famine relief in West Africa.

Chi Alpha has the distinct advantage of being financially supported by Pentecostal churches across the country. Also, many churches have hired staff members for full-time campus ministry. Valerie Carlson, college Ministries Editorial Assistant for the Advance, says that this is because the Church views the college campus as the greatest mission field in America. "These colleges are training tomorrow's presidents, business executives, computer engineers, and professors. Chi Alpha affords your church the opportunity to have a powerful, long-range impact on our world. Reaching the university student today means reaching tomorrow's trendsetter and decision maker," Carlson writes.

However, Michael Durning, a campus minister for Chi Alpha at Montclair State University of Montclair, New Jersey, says that one of the struggles his chapter faces is a lack of finances. "There's not a lot of money for resources available ... Finances are a factor in everything we do. We don't have much money."

Durning went on to say that another struggle the students in his chapter deal with is a lack of time. Eighty percent of Montclair students are commuters and a majority also work. This is also the weakness of the Montclair chapter. Because the school is located in an urban area and many commute, it is difficult to pull together a large number of students who are able to commit to the fellowship. Yet despite this, the chapter is student-led. The executive board consists of four student officers, and there are 11 students, called core facilitators, who lead the small discipleship groups.

Racially and ethnically, the students of this chapter vary broadly, according to Durning. Students from families who have recently immigrated regularly attend, as well as Korean, Chinese, Hispanic, and several international graduate and undergraduate students. These students are held together by their committment to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ as well as their committment to each other. This is the strength of the fellowship.

Racism is not a problem within the group, but Durning had this to say about the issue: "We consider racism to be a spiritual problem. We believe that by obeying the teachings of Jesus and applying them to one's life, you'll be able to overcome any kind of racist feelings ... Jesus Christ is really the only answer for racism. It's really a spiritual problem, not a problem of ignorance or a lack of education."

Durning's experiences with Chi Alpha have only been positive ones. "I'm continually challenged and transformed in a positive way by the students

"It's a time to stop thinking about classes and to focus on God." — Stephanie Buttafuocco

who follow the teachings of Jesus," he says. "I watch their lives grow in understanding of what it means to be a New Testament Christian in our world today. I'm constantly stretched to grow and help them grow. It's been a very positive experience."

Campus Crusade for Christ is an international ministry with nearly 14,000 staff members and over 100,000 volunteers in all the major countries throughout the world. The European ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ is called Agape Europe. Because of the efforts of this organization, it is estimated that nearly 65 million people heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in the past year.

The goal of Campus Crusade for Christ is to share their faith broadly. The fellowship in Marshall University of Huntington, West Virginia will be taking a seven-week mission trip to Slovakia to achieve this purpose.

The group from Stanford University of Stanford, California will be taking a trip to Osh, Kyrgyzstan of Asia. Summer Project Teams primarily from California partnership campuses will spend six weeks in the city focusing efforts on sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of cultural exchange and friendships. Their goal is to begin and continue a relationship with the university there. They also intend to establish a church in Osh which would be active in seeing that other churches would be planted in the surrounding Fergana Valley and ultimately the neighboring regions of the Middle East and Far East Asia.

Campus Crusade for Christ began on the UCLA campus in 1951. Since then, it has developed new strategies, ministries, and materials relevant to the culture of the day. The objective of the ministry is to reach over six billion people by the year 2000 "with at least one billion receiving Christ and one million churches being planted." President and founder Bill Bright says, "This will be accomplished by millions of trained Christians from thousands of churches of all denominations and hundreds of mission groups working together in obedience to our Lord's command."

Through Campus Crusade for Christ, college students are given the opportunity to participate in such overseas summer projects. Students from U.S. campuses travel to overseas campuses with the intention of starting a ministry. Usually, once the students leave, a full-time staff member remains along with short-term international staff members to continue building the ministry. In the summer of 1994, ministries were begun on 19 campuses in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, East Asia and Latin America. The overseas summer project is just one of the 65 ministries conducted through Campus Crusade for Christ.

These Christian ministries, despite whatever weaknesses, continue to transform the country and the world, campus by campus, city by city, state by state. It is the students who are first transformed, and they, in turn, reach out to their community and beyond. Yet if one was to ask these students about what they are doing, they would say it is not their work, but rather it is the work of God.